Aviance Capital Partners LLC Makes New Investment in Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT)

Aviance Capital Partners LLC bought a new stake in Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT) in the first quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 3,000 shares of the software maker’s stock, valued at approximately $205,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the business. Vima LLC acquired a new position in Fortinet in the 4th quarter valued at $25,000. Rise Advisors LLC grew its position in Fortinet by 135.6% during the first quarter. Rise Advisors LLC now owns 377 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $26,000 after buying an additional 217 shares during the period. Headinvest LLC purchased a new position in Fortinet in the third quarter valued at about $29,000. Atwood & Palmer Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Fortinet during the 4th quarter worth approximately $29,000. Finally, Creekmur Asset Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Fortinet in the 4th quarter worth approximately $32,000. 83.71% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In other Fortinet news, CEO Ken Xie sold 23,992 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $64.75, for a total transaction of $1,553,482.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 48,660,648 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,150,776,958. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. In other news, CEO Ken Xie sold 23,992 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, April 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $64.75, for a total value of $1,553,482.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 48,660,648 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,150,776,958. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, VP Michael Xie sold 24,710 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $64.48, for a total value of $1,593,300.80. Following the transaction, the vice president now owns 10,867,018 shares in the company, valued at $700,705,320.64. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 91,638 shares of company stock worth $5,705,568. 18.00% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Fortinet Stock Down 0.7 %

Shares of FTNT stock traded down $0.41 during mid-day trading on Monday, reaching $59.86. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 470,356 shares, compared to its average volume of 5,872,720. Fortinet, Inc. has a 12-month low of $44.12 and a 12-month high of $81.24. The firm has a market capitalization of $45.73 billion, a PE ratio of 39.38, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.95 and a beta of 0.98. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $60.58 and its 200-day simple moving average is $63.78.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, May 2nd. The software maker reported $0.43 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.38 by $0.05. The business had revenue of $1.35 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.34 billion. Fortinet had a net margin of 22.23% and a negative return on equity of 2,235.48%. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.29 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.2% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Fortinet, Inc. will post 1.46 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have commented on the company. Rosenblatt Securities reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $85.00 target price on shares of Fortinet in a research report on Tuesday, June 11th. Cantor Fitzgerald dropped their target price on shares of Fortinet from $65.00 to $55.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Friday, May 3rd. Mizuho reduced their price target on shares of Fortinet from $70.00 to $66.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, May 3rd. Wedbush restated an “outperform” rating and set a $78.00 price objective on shares of Fortinet in a research report on Wednesday, May 22nd. Finally, Scotiabank lowered their target price on Fortinet from $90.00 to $80.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, May 3rd. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twenty have assigned a hold rating and eleven have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $70.03.

Fortinet Profile

Fortinet, Inc provides cybersecurity and convergence of networking and security solutions worldwide. It offers secure networking solutions focus on the convergence of networking and security; network firewall solutions that consist of FortiGate data centers, hyperscale, and distributed firewalls, as well as encrypted applications; wireless LAN solutions; and secure connectivity solutions, including FortiSwitch secure ethernet switches, FortiAP wireless local area network access points, FortiExtender 5G connectivity gateways, and other products.